smalljaw67

Don't worry about the receipt, as long as the bar code is still on the little box, that is unless you threw that away as well. The reason they need it is to determine lot numbers so if they notice a lot coming back from a certain lot they can find out what the issue is. My guess is if you send it in, they will replace it. I have had 1 bill break and they replaced it but that is it and for me the DT series has been great. My fishing partner, he breaks a lot of them and doesn't use them anymore but he smacks his bait against the water to get weeds off the hooks and balsa baits don't like that, ask anyone who has smacked a balsa bait on the water, what I saw my buddy do is smack it twice, and on the third smack the bait went sailing while the bill was still attached to his line.

If the plastic has salt and/or scent then the hook can possibly corrode faster. It isn't a problem for just a few days but not for longer than a week.

There are rods like that, I don't understand it but I know Fenwick has a spinning rod rated to 3/8oz that is a MH and so does Quantum. The very reason for it though is there is no industry standard so they can call anything a Mo or MH, it doesn't matter. I may email Lews and see why this is as now you made me wonder as to the reasoning of labeling a rod with that power designation.

I still have a jar of Uncle Josh Spin Strips with 3 left, I don't use them in warm water, for me they are perfect on the back of a 1/8oz hair jig.

I have one word of caution before getting a Megabass rod, ask about the taper. I got to fish with my friend's X4 Super Orochi and I did not like it at all, he has a few of them and told all his Megabass rods have a similar taper so there was no use in trying any others out. The tapers are kind of like a strange cranking rod and to me it feels like there are distinct power zones that cause the rod to have a slower action. To me it feels like I have to really set the hook with everything I got and that isn't enough, I mean it is more than enough power but it doesn't feel like it, it feels like the rod just keeps giving with no shut off point, it is hard to explain but that very thing makes the rods super versatile but not for me. So, if you like a slower rod you may find the Megabass to your liking, if you like faster American tapers you may want something a little different but as I said, some anglers love them so you have to try one to know.

I use mono for most applications but when frogs are on the menu the line goes to braid. I don't think the line was causing the problems, I don't think the fish were eating it. I had 6 good, at least they looked good, hits in one small area a few years back and I could not hook the fish, it was the 7th strike that my buddy watched and told me that I'll never catch it. The reason was the fish was "tail slapping" the bait, and I've had it happen with spooks and poppers as well and when I have it happen more than once I switch up anymore. So switch out the line to braid and wait until you feel the fish before setting the hook, if you don't feel them, they aren't eating it.

Actually it doesn't, the turbo blades are wide and need to go pretty quick to get them to rotate. That is another reason they are mostly used with a plastic quad blade prop in the center, it helps in keeping the bait up at slower speeds were as the delta prop will help but not nearly as much as the plastic quad wing. They make a good sound and really churn the water, when I use to make buzzbaits the turbo prop was one that would draw big strikes, in this example I see there is a bead missing on the front of the turbo blade. The reason a bead would be there is to keep the blade from moving too far down wire form and possibly getting stuck a little, it isn't really needed to make the bait work but it is something I'd have on it.

It has 1 bearing which is probably a spool bearing and the other side will have a bushing. This sounds like the low profile graphite framed casting reels of the mid to late 80s as most were the same way back then, 1 bearing and a bushing for the spool and bushing supported worm gear for the level wind.

If you have the tools and everything you need to build rods then yes, $100 can get a decent rod but if you need to buy rod building supplies in addition to the components and blank, forget it, a shelf rod would be better at that price.

I don't know how it works but when B.A.S.S. was owned by ESPN, there was a show on the one Saturday morning and Tommy Sanders was touring the Quantum Facility . They said that they do all their own R&D, design, testing and manufacturing while other use existing manufacturers to produce reels. As I said, I'm not sure how that works but I saw that show and everything in that plant, and it looked like a plant, had Quantum logos all over.

I got to spend a short time with my buddy's B-Day present, a St. Croix Avid X spinning rod, all I can say is I'm getting one!!!!! The rod is sweet, but I'm trying to wrap my mind around why this rod feels so much different from the regular Avid. I picked up and fished with the 6'8" M-XF Avid and then after 20 minutes and 1 small fish I used the 6'9" ML-XF and I did not want to put it down. Now, I do understand that one was a medium while the other was a medium light but I also got to use the medium in a 7' and liked that too!!! My friend and neighbor is a St. Croix fanboy, he has a few Avid series rods, in fact most of his rods are Avids and he went an sold an Avid spinning rod and got 2 Fenwick ET Smallmouth rods after using mine. Now after they released the new Avid X he went and tried one and ended up buying the 7' medium and just got the 6'9" ML-XF for his B-day and this is really making my wonder why a rod with the same blank with some cosmetic changes and different guides can have such a dramatic difference in feel, it is just really strange. What I want to know is if anyone else thinks these rods feel better or different from the original Avid, I mean to me the difference is night and day and I'm wondering if it is in my head or if I'm not alone, I'm interested in reading everyone else's views on this.

Yes, that is what I'm saying. They have their own unique drag system and brake system, nothing around that was close and even the frames are different. The Smoke reel was an all aluminum reel under 7oz, and both the handle and palm side plates were aluminum, not many were made like that except for my Abu Garcia 2nd Gen Premier. So even if you hate Quantum, it really doesn't matter as they do have their own facility that produces nothing but Quantum unlike the Banax , and I believer there are two others that produce reels for a bunch of different companies.

Yep, custom made bait with a delta prop inside a turbo prop and they work great!!!! I normally see these with a quad wing plastic blade inside the turbo blade, the turbo produces a good sound while the plastic quad blades make more of a hum and both together make a good lure.

I'm not sure about the others but Quantum has their own facility, that has been widely known and why their reels are different from the cookie cutters.

Do that with a casting reel and when the reel backlashes there goes your set-up!!!!

If you are going to use a line that has stretch, and you are, then the shock isn't a rod you will want for bottom contact baits. You got great info from Poisonokie, the shock is a moderate action rod meaning it has a deeper flex or bend to compensate for lack of stretch in braid which is what they mean by "superline". If I were you I'd look at a regular lightning rod or something comparable.

I agree with a lot of what Tom said, that is why I make my own. I love the Eakins finesse jig but as Tom had mentioned, 7/16oz which is basically 1/2oz, isn't finesse for me but they do work well so I make the same one only I scaled it down to 1/8oz, 3/16oz, and 1/4oz. I like a small craw trailer on the back and I like to use a thinner weed guard and cast to rock flats and then drag it to mimic a craw scurrying from rock to rock, it works incredible well. I make a dozen different kinds of finesse jigs from small puffballs to Eakins type and they all have a time and place, it is a great addition to worms and they also help me save and get more out of my soft plastics. I use straight tail finesse worm and when they get torn up I don't throw them out, I keep them in a separate bag and then I cut the heads off and use the tails for trailers on my small finesse jigs that resemble the Keitech mono spin jig, killer finesse presentation.

Everybody is going to give you good advise but I'm going to tell you something that is true, but it may seem like an excuse. We all lose fish hooked on trebles and crankbait specific rods really helped my fishing, but when you have times when you are losing just about every fish, it isn't the equipment or the hook set but instead it is the fish. Go read the latest blog entry from KVD on Bass Masters, he talks about this very thing and I've had it happen as most of have, you're reeling your crank and you feel a good hit and you hook the fish for 5 seconds and he is gone or he jumps and the bait just comes out, sometimes it is us, but when it happens with just about every fish then you know something is up. I had a guide explain this to me a long time ago, he said what happens is the fish aren't feeding, instead they are angry or frustrated or something and they hit the cranks with a closed mouth in order to push it away or stun it or they get try to squeeze the prey item just with the front of their mouth and he didn't know if it was tasting it or trying to injure it but it is basically a quick chomp and we barely get a hook in to the fish. They will also swim up and turn to tail slap it and that results either in a foul hooked fish that you land or your bait comes back with a scale on the hook, but it isn't always us. A local pro from my area is Pete Gluszek , he was at a seminar at a local tackle shop and he described a way the bass were hitting his signature crankbait so that he would only hook like 1 out of every 4 or 5 bites, and he could see some of the bites in the shallow, clear water and that is how he found out why he was missing so many, what the bass were doing he said, was they sort of trapped the bait between their mouth and the bottom and the part of the crank they had was the back. So it may not be be you but doing everything you were told will help with getting some of those to the boat.

You are correct in the truck forum part but the golf analogy works perfect. No, you can't hit the ball as far with a pitching wedge as you can a driver, but you also can't cast as far with a 6' heavy power rod as you can with a 7'11" moderate action launcher. Try casting a 1/8oz jig head with a 3" grub on it for distance and accuracy with a 7'6" flipping stick..... See what I mean? It comes down to how you play the game, for SirSookalot, his fishing is all about catching the fish as he missed my point, for bass anglers catching the fish is just a part of the entire game. Bass anglers are different, we constantly refine what works, for example, take the Crème Scoundrel, most fished them with straight shank hooks but when Mann's came along with the Jelly worm, it got a lot of attention and so did the method of rigging it weedless which became known as Texas style. It wasn't long when we got worm hooks with the offset shank we have today, then there was the slug-o, and then the fluke and not long after we got the EWG hook and then rod manufacturers got into it and started playing around to see what kind of rods and action work best to fish these things. If we were satisfied just catching the fish, well there would be no graphite rods, or casting reels with brake systems because the rods we use to use and the lures, line, hooks, and sinkers were all perfectly fine but the constant push for refinement is just part of the entire fishing game. This is a great discussion, it shows how different we really are in how we put our priorities, but make no mistake, the end result for all of us is to catch the fish, but how we all get there is where we all take different roads and if you truly enjoy the simplistic approach, then great, or if you like to push the envelope of performance, so be it as well, but there really is no wrong or right as long as the end result is the same. And just like golf, if I use only a pitching wedge, my score will be high but eventually I'll put the ball in the hole, the same with fishing, you may not get the longest or most accurate cast but eventually you will still catch a fish.

I make my own and the way some people use them makes me think mine will break as well. The number one problem I find with finesse anglers is most of them try to finesse on tackle that is too heavy. When I was in business I got a call from a guy who bought a dozen shaky heads in a 1/8oz weight with a 3/0 hook, he told me the hook bent and so I was going to replace it but first I wanted to know what he was fishing the head on. He tells me he was using a 7. MH spinning rod, 300 size reel with 30# power pro braid and a 14# fluorocarbon leader, I didn't replace his head because I told him it is a light line finesse technique meant for 6lb to 10lb line maximum with a medium light to medium power spinning rod, if he wanted heavier I could make heavier but he insisted on the light wire hooks. The reason for this is I found you tube videos and there are some from guys like Jeff Kriet who recommend 6lb to 8lb like and then another from a guy who fishes on lake fork who recommends a heavier set up but he says to compensate with the drag, and that is the problem, too many conflicting views but there is stuff made for each way. The NED rig is designed with an Aberdeen hook, Aberdeen hooks are made to bend straight to free from snags and most 90 degree jig hooks are of this type. Now, when you use 10# line and up, you bend the hooks while bringing fish to the boat because you can get them in by pulling but eventually you'll bend the hook one to many times and it will break. I'm not saying that is what happened, but I hear this same thing from guys not really use to finesse fishing, they tend to use finesse presentations with heavy line and rods, I've watched guys fishing slider worms with 17# line and MH casting rods because they were concerned about break offs when the very tackle will cause them to either bend the hook out or not let the bait move freely enough to get bit. My point is this, my mushroom head and hook is better than what is on the production model, this I'm pretty sure of but if used the wrong way it will break and the same thing with the production model, it isn't going to last fishing in cover or with line heavier than 8lb because it was made to fish open water with 4# to 8# line and expecting it to hold up using anything else is unrealistic.

I do appreciate your view on a lot of things as they reflect a lot of my own. That said, your view on rods has to do with you being a multispecies angler, and most anglers like yourself don't understand why, when simplicity works just fine, we go out of our way as bass anglers to make things complicated. The reason is getting new tackle like rods and lures is half the fun of bass fishing, catching the fish is just the icing on the cake. There is also refinement, I can make any rod work for any technique but I did notice a huge decrease in the amount of fish I lost when I went to using moderate action crankbait specific rods while fishing cranks, that changed my view on a lot of things when it comes to rods. I found that there are preferred lengths and actions that make certain techniques work much better and the number of fish caught went up, so there is some truth to using the right rod, it is like golf clubs, while you can use a 9 iron for everything, other clubs work better for different things. The biggest thing for me is line, I use braid for heavy flipping and frog fishing in slop, otherwise it is all mono/copoly because fluorocarbon makes it tough on me as I have to really slow down tying a knot and I can't get it to stop jumping off the spinning reel so rather than be frustrated I use good quality mono and it works but I'm sure if I were fishing deep I'd be at a disadvantage but rarely does my fishing go deeper than 20' in my waters. The beauty of fishing is that it is like any other hobby, you can get into it as deep as you'd like, for some of us it is a lawn chair with a Zebco 33 and a 6-pack of beer sitting on the bank watching the line, while others it is technique specific rods and reels on a bass boat stalking fish for cash, it depends on how far you want to wade into the water.

I fish for smallmouth using 3.5" tubes most of the time with an inside style jig head, but when I fish them for largemouth I use them differently. I'll pitch tubes to cover and when I do that I like using a 4" tube Texas rigged with a 1/8oz bullet head pegged, if I'm dragging a tube across points, I use the same 4" tube but I rig it weedless with an internal weight and it is very effective as many people don't do it.

Bigbill, you are an outdated fisherman...LOL!!! Action is measured in speed, how fast the rod goes from bent to straight, so you have slow, moderate or medium, moderate fast or medium fast, fast, and extra fast. Slow rods have mostly been replaced by moderate rods which are softer and better for baits with treble hooks, and since there is no industry standard, one manufacturers moderate could be another one's moderate fast or vice versa but I'll give you general uses. Most rods rated with a moderate or moderate fast taper or action are commonly labeled as cranking rods or reaction bait rods, fast action rods are your general purpose rods and extra fast are normally for bottom contact only presentations. It can get confusing with technique specific gear, like punching rods, these are heavy power rods with moderate actions because they are designed to fish heavy weights with heavy braid so they bend further down the blank to provide some much needed give for the braid and to help keep fish on the hook by keeping constant pressure from a deep bend. And fiberglass rods have their own rating, a fast taper on a fiberglass rod is still going to be soft, it will just bend faster at the tip section. I hope that explains it a little bit without being too confusing.

I'm with everyone else, G.Loomis classic casting but if that is too much coin, the Cabelas Fish Eagle 50 will work. I suggested it as a lower cost because I had the original Fish Eagle II rods and they had a really nice feel to the MH, great tip for a MH with good backbone but if you can afford it the 723 in a GL3 or IMX, the 724 is a bit more powerful and for a 6' rod I don't think you need that.

Yes and no, yes, you can do it later but it has to be done correctly. I make a color on a spinnerbait and a swim jig called "Table Rock Shad", it has white for the belly and a chartreuse body and a purple back, if order for the purple not to turn brown I have to paint the white and then the chartreuse and cure the jig by baking it in a 350 degree oven. Then when the bait cools I'll heat it up and paint the purple back and cure again but you have to be careful not to scorch the existing paint and still make it hot enough to make the paint stay on. Now if you are wanting to take a brown jig and heat it and dip in another color, well you can di it but you'll most likely end up with the paint sagging and forming a nipple on the head because there will be too much paint.